Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday, 470 soldiers delivered Paul to Governor Felix in Caesarea. Today, we pick up five

days later when some of the authorities from Jerusalem have come to talk

to Felix about Paul. They brought a spokesman slash lawyer named Tertullus with them. Tertullus starts off

by flattering Felix, then launches into accusing Paul of starting riots and defiling the temple,

neither of which he's done. Paul defends himself with the truth. He says he goes to great lengths to live with

integrity and that he has honored the ways of Yahweh, including everything written in the law and the

prophets, which is the shorthand way of saying all the Hebrew scriptures, i.e. the Old Testament. Felix

is pretty familiar with first century Christianity, or the way, as Paul calls it, possibly because

he lives in Caesarea among prominent

evangelists like Philip. He wants to hear more from Paul, so he tells the people who came down from

Jerusalem that he'll make a decision later and sends them back home. In the meantime, he tells the

soldiers to keep Paul in prison but to be nice to him. Remember, in this day, prisons aren't

required to care for you. Your friends have to do that.

And sometimes prison guards even prevent the friends from doing that. Felix keeps calling Paul up

to talk to him about the way, but it's never enough for him. He's also kind of hoping Paul is

going to pay him a bribe so he can get out of prison, but even here, Paul maintains his integrity,

sharing the gospel and obeying the rules. After two years,

Felix leaves office unexpectedly. History tells us he was kicked out of office because he couldn't

keep peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. So in order to make things less awkward with the Jews,

he leaves Paul in prison. Festus takes over after Felix, but even after two years, the issue with

Paul has not cooled off at all.

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